Drugs belonging to a major criminal gang were seized in a raid by gardaí last night. Cocaine and heroin worth €2 million were recovered at a house in Maynooth, Co Kildare, in an operation co-ordinated by the National Drugs Unit, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Bureau for Fraud Investigation.
It is believed the criminals had recently imported the 50-kilo consignment from the Continent and that they are also heavily involved in money laundering.
Detectives raided the house after interrogating three men arrested in Dublin on Tuesday.
One of the three, believed to be in his 30s and from the north of the city, is expected to appear before a special sitting of Dublin District Court later today. The other two were released without charge last night.
They had been under Garda surveillance for a number of months.
The seizure follows a multi-million drugs haul in Belgium which may have been destined for Ireland. Belgian police found a truck abandoned with its driver's door open last Friday in a lay-by near the town of Kortrijk and kept it under surveillance during the weekend.
Inside they discovered heroin, amphetamines, cannabis and almost 600,000 ecstasy tablets.
Belgian police believe the truck was travelling from Amsterdam to France, possibly to embark on a ferry to Ireland.
Earlier this week, gardaí arrested 27 suspected drug dealers as part of the "Operation Clean Streets".
They said they had identified almost 100 people believed to be heroin dealers by deploying undercover gardaí on the streets. Some have already been charged under Section 15 of the Drug Trafficking Act.
Last month, cannabis worth nearly €5 million was recovered from an equestrian centre in south Co Dublin. Gardaí believe the premises were being used as a distribution centre by one of the city's most powerful criminal gangs and that the seizure cut off one of the key drugs supply lines.